A continuing need exists for improvements in stair systems for use in accessing a variety of driven or towed vehicles. Often, vehicles of various types park at locations where an entrance door or platform is at a level above the ground where ease and/or safety of access to the vehicle may be facilitated by the availability of a stair system. Further, quite often a vehicle is parked over sloping or uneven ground, so placement of legs on the ground, for support or stability, is often problematic in prior art designs of which I am aware. A wide variety of stair structures have been known and utilized as appropriate for various applications. And, although many of such prior art stair structures have been constructed which in some limited fashion enable a user to effect or provide some adjustment in the stairs, at least in the case of campers used on pickup trucks, adjustment is generally only with respect to extension from the camper. Thus, often a separate stool, block of wood, or other structure is necessary for placement on the ground in order to provide reasonable height for users to access existing stairs to a camper.
A common problem encountered in prior art stair systems is that when operating on uneven ground, such structures are often not uniformly adjustable (often are not even variably adjustable) to provide a secure final level platform near the ground. Thus, such prior art stair structures inevitably leave a gap of a few inches between a desirable stair platform height and the actual stair platform height which may be achieved. Also, it is often rather difficult to achieve a quick adjustment in any of the available stair designs. Often, the result is a vehicle located a particular site, such as a campsite or jobsite with an entrance/exit stairs/platform which does not provide adequate safety in terms of providing an even distance between stairs, vertically, or with respect to providing stable contact with the ground below.
Thus, there remains a continuing unmet need for a retractable stairs system for a vehicle in which the total stair height is adjustable, and in which stable ground contact is provided via support pads, with individually adjustable heights between the stairs and the support pads on opposing sides of the stairs.